Satya Bhabha (Performer) His plays with Target Margin include Ten Blocks On The Camino Real, As Yet Thou Art Young and Rash. Off-Broadway includes: Rafta Rafta, Paradise Park, Queens Blvd. (The Musical), Hell House. London: Holy Warriors (Shakespeare’s Globe). TV includes: “New Girl,” “The Good Wife,” “Key & Peele,” “NCIS.” Film includes: Midnight’s Children, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Assisted Living, Dude. Training: Yale University, National Youth Theatre UK.

TMT: Satya, you are an old friend of Target Margin, can you talk about your past work with TMT and how we tricked you into a two-year exploration of O’Neill’s trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra.

SB: Well, as David knows, after a bottle of wine and a good meal and I’ll say yes to practically anything. Anything theatrical, that is. But in all seriousness, yes – Target Margin has been a major influence on my life and work, and I’m thrilled to be back working with you again.

I did my first show with Target Margin (As Yet Thou Art Young and Rash, 2006) the same year I got out of college. I was still getting my footing in New York, both personally and professionally, and immediately knew that, in Target Margin, I had found a creative home. The show was incredibly rewarding and introduced me to the downtown theatre scene at large, which was also professionally indispensable.

We worked together again a few years later on Tennessee Williams’ Ten Blocks on the Camino Real. This was a major undertaking – the show was developed over many workshops and presented performance challenges unlike anything I had previously experienced. However, as always, working with people you love makes hard work fun, and by that point I had developed something of a shorthand with David – we speak the same language. I moved to LA shortly thereafter, and that was actually the last play that I did for some time.

It was about a year and a half ago, when I returned to LA after performing my first play in about five years at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, that I called David. We had often spoken over the years about working together again, but the play in London had truly lit a fire under me to make theatre more of a priority. David and I made a commitment then and there to make this show work, despite my living in Los Angeles. And, thrillingly, we have been successful… So far. Let’s wait and see what happens in the theatre before making any too sweeping statements.

TMT: In DRUNKEN WITH WHAT, the first of a series of “studies” of Mourning, you not only play the lead Orin but also Erza and Captain Adam Brant. What has the process been like and what has been the biggest challenge?

SB: The process has been a rather unusual one for Target Margin, in that we initially approached the text in an almost pedantically straight-forward way. We vowed to observe every stage direction and perform the text in the most ‘traditional’ manner. That was very fun and rewarding as a performer.

Now we are in the process of actually building our show, and are using that ‘fully-fleshed’ performance we created as a touchstone from which we often deviate.

Playing all three characters has been exciting and challenging. After ingesting the huge amount of text (which was in itself a challenge), I have really been working on defining the characters physically and making sure that those details remain no matter if we are treating the text ‘traditionally’ or in a more experimental way. I want to have each character be extremely sharply delineated, but when we move away from the highly invested and expressive performance style, the character specifics often erode. That, I would say, is a constant challenge right now.

TMT: Traditionally, it’s rare for an actor with such a diverse ethnic background to have the opportunity to perform the role of Orin. Luckily, we’re not concerned at all about “tradition.” What’s exciting to you about Drunken’s casting and what impact, if any, do you think this choice will have on audiences and larger theater community?

SB: So many people talk about ‘diversity’ but so few people do anything to address it! There’s always an argument to be made against it: it’s not ‘what the playwright intended,’ it’s ‘confusing,’ it’s ‘not what we see in the real world.’ Of course, that is not true in the slightest, and to restrict ourselves to casting as per the ‘playwright’s vision’ is to succumb to the racial politics of their era.

I am thrilled to be performing with such a diverse cast. Our dynamic is fantastic, and I do believe that, at each of our essences, we are perfectly suited to our characters. My sincere hope is that our audience is not paying attention to the color of our skins but to the content of our characters (to quote a man much greater than me), and that theatre professionals who come to see the show will gain a wider understanding of what is and is not possible on stage.

TMT: From playing the lead in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children to reoccurring roles on the New Girl and The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy, you have a very successful career in TV and film. Tell us a little bit about your experience working in theater and how it differs from TV / Film.

SB: Our work at Target Margin is unique and different from anything I’ve ever done, whether on stage or on camera. That being said, I’d say a major difference between camera and stage is that on stage process is everything, whereas on camera spontaneity is the goal. Certainly one needs to be spontaneous and ‘in the moment’ when developing stage work, but that all gets folded into the process at large and the final piece is a culmination of months (sometimes years!) of careful questioning and examining.

As an actor on screen you are brought into the creative process very late (often just days before you shoot!) and there are few if any rehearsals. Your job is to furnish the director and editor with a range of honest, dynamic, and engaging moments, which they will then use to build the film. Not to say that you ignore the integrity of the larger narrative or the overall shape of the scene, but given that one does multiple takes of each scene, it is more important to find searing moments of truth, than to string together a single take of any specific scene (or, certainly, the whole film).

On stage, and particularly in our work here at Target Margin, our performances are deeply imbued with ghosts of scenes and stories that we have discussed throughout the development of the piece. While the goal remains an honest expression of your character’s state (mental, emotional, or physical), the information that we are referencing in our performances is all drawn from our months of work on the subject.

TMT: What’s next?

SB: I acted in three films last year, and I believe that a few of those will be coming out shortly after our work here finishes – I’m excited to see them! I also recently shot my second short film as a writer/director (a two and a half minute horror movie!) and am in the process of putting the finishing touches on that. I also acted in a comedy pilot for TBS in late November, so we are all waiting to hear if the show gets picked up.

Apart from that I’m excited to get back to LA, bask in the sunshine for a few moments, and start research on my next two creative projects: a site-specific production of Chekhov in an abandoned mansion in LA, and a filmed version of a Shakespeare play set in Downtown Los Angeles. And, I suppose soon enough, I’ll have to get back to learning lines for the rest Mourning Becomes Electra… though not before a bit of a break.